
NoTE.—"I delight in the law of God." The man truly enlightened
of God, though convicted of sin, does not excuse himself and find fault
with the law. He sees beauty, consistency, harmony, morality, in that
law. But how different was God's law, as/disclosed by His Spirit, from
the perverted law in his members!
13.
But what did he see in his members? What was this law doing?
Verse 23, first part.
NoTE.—"Members" and "law"—"law of my mind." Before man
shined, God's law was dominant in him. It was a delight not only of
the mind but for the members to obey that law. But when man opened
the door to Satan, his members became perverted by the perversions of
sin; for sin is always a perversion of the true law of God, and man
under the law of sin followed in spite of himself sin's perverted law.
The word and Spirit of God reveal to him the beauty, the reasonable-
ness, the holiness, of God's law, but he has no power in himself to obey
that law. He hates evil, but does it. He abhors sin, yet yields to it. He
is in the beginning of the struggle indicated in chapter 6:11-13, 19..
There are many souls who pass through Romans, and many who abide
too long in chapter 7, verses 14-23. There are some writers who seem
to think it to be a Christian experience; but, dear souls, it is not a Chris-
tian experience to be always failing, always defeated, always in des-
pair. Surrender, absolute, unconditional surrender, must come. Our
members one and all must be yielded to God. The whole man, mental,
moral, physical, must be given to Him who bought him, and in Him
and in the power of His endless life, he may thus bring every purpose,
thought, act, member, into willing, glad service to Him. Settle it now
in chapter 7, and lift your heart into the first part of Romans 7:25.
14.
What was the result of this warfare? Verse 23, last part.
NOTE.—"Bringing me into captivity." However lofty man's stand-
ard, however high his ideals, he will inevitably fail, in his own strength.
He is led captive by the great deceiver at will. Man possesses no power
to lift himself above himself. He may change the form of his sinning,
but he cannot take away the sin.
-
15.
What did this unhappy, unsatisfactory experience lead Paul to
exclaim? Verse 24.
NOTE.—"Body of this death." "This body of death" (margin). Per-
haps an allusitm to a prisoner chained to another who has died. Would
God that all sinners might see sin, however beautifully it may be garbed,
to be what it really is, a body of death.
"He [Paul] longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in
himself he was powerless to attain, and he cried out, '0 wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?' Such is the
cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages.
To all, there is but one answer, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world.'"—"Steps to Christ," pp. 21, 22.
16.
What is God's object in thus convicting the sinner by the law?
Gal. 3:24.
NOTE.—"Bring us unto Christ." God does not condemn that He may
rejoice in our misery, or that He may leave us hopeless. He reveals our
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